This post continues our new blog series on poverty. As our nation reflects on its progress in fighting poverty over the last 50 years, this blog series will highlight how psychology can contribute further to this discussion.

From Washington, DC and across the nation, numerous politicians, policymakers, and researchers have led a movement to address disparities in out-of-school suspension practices. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. have recently engaged in national discussions and federal legislation to address school discipline practices and their implications for economically disadvantaged ethnic minority youth.

The “invisible” youth

Ralph Ellison (1952) wrote “I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Ellison’s allegorical tale of a man navigating his environment runs parallel to the lives of numerous economically disadvantaged ethnic minority youth who transition into the public…